The Wiener Werkstätte

The Wiener Wersktätte (Vienna Workshops) was founded in 1903 by Professors Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser with the entrepreneur and manufacturer Fritz Waerndorfer. The professions of the founding members say much about the goals of the new venture. Hoffmann and Moser, members of the Vienna Secessionist movement, sought to expand the horizons of architecture that was then known. They firmly believed in a continuity of quality, from the building itself down to every item included in the building, whether decorative, functional, or (ideally) both. They instinctively understood the symbiotic relationship of architecture and design. Hoffmann and Moser rejected the notion of a "gentleman architect" who dictated from above, then followed by a crew of separate designers who would each fill in the missing details. Furthermore, by including Waerndorfer as an equal partner, they acknowledged that the nuts and bolts of manufacturing should not be an afterthought performed by "underlings," but an integral part of the architecture/design process. In fact, true quality from the inside out, rather than the appearance of luxury tacked on to shoddy workmanship, could only be achieved with the full participation of the manufacturer. This radical idea remains at the center of the Unika Vaev philosophy.

Although their original goal was to include all details within the "Gesamtkunstwerk," the "Total Work of Art", the result of their venture was beyond what they had originally imagined. By taking the details of design seriously, they created fabrics and objects whose life outlasted their original installations. The Wiener Werkstätte became noted for its beautiful fabric designs, particularly with a judicious use of geometrical lines in bold arrangements. Their international popularity never waned. It was only economic pressures caused by the Great Depression that forced the Wiener Werkstätte to close its doors in 1932.

Historicism was the Great Enemy for the Secessionists. They felt it had all but stifled architecture and design in Vienna before their new look ushered in a modern era in design. Unika Vaev respects the spirit of this work as well as the result. The accuracy and respect shown to the original designs and methods of production are never to freeze these designs in a moment in time, but to capture their spirit for our own era.